what makes society follow the trends and social standards ?

A science fiction novel written by Phillip K. Dick with the title Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep has thousands of lessons for its readers. The novel talks about the human nature. The story underlines several matters that people may face in their life which reflects on how human lives their life in the future. Starting from people’s dependency to the technologies, the influence of mass media, false religion, consumerism, less empathy, false identity, mind control, and many more. When I read the book, I noted that Deckard, the main character in the novel is living with the idea of consumerism whereby he has an envy feeling for the other people who can afford exotic animals. In the book, people use the real animal to greater their social acceptance. They buy fancy things even though they do not really need it. Consumerism is the talking point in the novel that will be discussed in this paper along with the main character in the novel, Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter who wants to kill the nexus-6 in order to buy real sheep to impress his neighbours. Consumerism refers to the idea of purchasing goods which is always increasing and it makes people being obsessive about it and feels that their well-being and happiness depends on the obtaining those goods, specially fancy things. In relation, their thoughts are influence by the mass media through the advertisement that. In addition, the meaning of consumerism in the novel is also related to the sense of envy within the community in real life. Normally, self-esteem, prestige, and life style are the internal factors that lead someone to consumerism and competition. Rick Deckard represents the idea of consumerism that categorize into life standard in the humanity described in the book whereby Rick Deckard is obsessed to consumerism, in this case to buy real animal as by having a real animal is confirming that his social rank is high according to the standard that exists in that society (Dick, 1968, p. 5). In Indonesia, social competition among the people happens. The society is competing to afford luxuries such as branded goods to increase their social ranks. The worst case is about those who are willing to do anything in order to achieve their goals which includes to lift their social status. The writer found that the subject consumerism and social competition is interesting because it reflects to the lifestyle of the people living in the modern society. Rick Deckard and consumerism in the book showing something similar on how society lives nowadays. Additionally, the question is about what is wrong with our society nowadays, Why society should care about the luxurious goods and social competition? . In real life, due to the consumerism, many people are competing to evaluate their social status by buying fancy things. For instance, the latest release of branded bag, clothes, exotic animals, and many more. This shows that people follow the community standard, and using the expenssive goods and exotic animals to confirm their social degree. As several chapters of the book Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep? and Indonesian news provided evidences and facts regarding the topic of this paper, it reveals the correlation between the main character in the story and the lifestyle of the Indonesian community. It leads to hypothesis that people nowadays and society described in the Phillip’s book use luxurious animals and goods to measure their social ranks as they indeed concern about it. Therefore they compete and willing to do anything for it, even families. However, the question is why they should do it? . In the novel, Rick Deckard’s behaviours confirms that he is selfish and greedy for animals with expensive price just to impress his neighbours. Hence, he killed the Nexus-6 androids in order to afford a real animal. It is clearly indicated that Rick Deckard does not care how can he afford his desirable pet, what matter is to buy it as form the social standpoint it has to be done. It means that Rick Deckard indeed attempts to follow the standards in his society. Over here in Indonesia we can see the same points as written in the Phillip Dick’s book, it is about the consumerism and competition among the people. There is considerable celebrities, socialites and elites who have a desire of owning fancy things and exotic pets (Pasha, 2019) which is similar to Rick Deckard’s wish. This is proven by the news and references provided in the finding session whereby there is a trend and social standard created among them to possess luxurious stuff and pets. For instance, Marion Jola, singer who recognized that she ever bought a branded bag because of her prestige as there is a community standard of owning luxurious things from her surroundings. The other one is a socialite who stole a Luis Vuitton handbag as her surroundings have branded bag as the social standard (Beers, 2020) whereby this example is related to Rick Deckard who became a bounty hunter to buy his desirable pet. Furthermore, the trend of owning an exotic pet within the celebrities and exclusive groups. It can be noted from the YouTube channel of several celebrities. For example, mass media and the YouTube channel that exhibit Irfan Hakim’s exotic pet, Aldabra tortoise, Alshad Ahmad’s Bengal tiger, Raditya Dika’s sphynx cat, and so much more (Pasha, 2019). This asserts the correlation between the concept of consumerism in the book and Indonesian society whereby people’s envy feeling and prestige resulted them to follow the trends and social standards in order to their social ranks even though in fact they do not really need it. The factors that influencing the society to follow the trends and social standard are varied. The external and internal factors. Social environment and mass media are the external factors as they have influence someone’s way of thinking through advertisement. The impact of the mass media here supports the concept of consumerism as it makes the community happy if they can purchase what everyone else affording and have a sense of envy towards each other. Hence, it leads to competition between the community as if they are not participate in the game, somehow they will be ashamed. Even those who are unable to afford fancy things enforce themselves to buy what the elite groups buying. Followed by internal factors which constitutes by life style, sense of envy, and prestige. Both two factors are the main element in influencing someone’s decision whether to follow the trends and social standard or not. The principal reasons of having branded goods are prestige for most of people, mainly the celebrities and elite groups in Indonesia. Accordingly someone’s prestige relies on the things and services that he/she use, which in further became his/her life style. Using branded stuff makes people become more comfortable and confirms their social rank. In fact, those groups of people will merely feel ashamed if they do not owning branded stuff because they afraid of being judged as a lower class people from their social environment. This shows that those people seek for recognition as they feel they need acceptance from other people to feel good about themselves. The root causes of this are sense of envy, lack of self-esteem and confidence as it is socially constructed, that an individual should follow the community standard so that he or she will not be subject to bullying. As a result of this social phenomenon, it can decrease life-satisfaction and happiness as their happiness is measured by owning luxurious goods and the community might find it difficult to admit themselves and be confident for who they really are. In addition, perhaps it will be hard for them to live in peace as they tend to join the social competition for social acceptance which it could raise anxiety and depression if they fail to reach acceptance from the other. In conclusion, by all the proven results, I do believe that consumerism and social competition exist in Indonesian society. It is true fancy things and exotic animals are the trends and social standard that are used by the society as a symbol of their social class. The Society indeed follows the trends and standards that are socially constructed as they are envious, prestige, and seek for acceptance from other people to feel good about themselves by impressing the community. It is proven by the findings section from the novel whereby Rick Deckard is jealous of his neighbours who just afforded a real animal. Therefore, he has a desire to afford a real animal just to impress his neighbours by doing anything. Subsequently, Indonesian society mainly the celebrities and elite groups owning branded goods and exotic animals to impress the society even though they do not really need it. . Both findings from novel “Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep? ” and the lifestyle of Indonesian society has the same idea of describing the consumerism in the book and real life in Indonesia. The matter here is the human nature of being greedy when they are obsessed with something, taking risk will be their last means to reach it. The author of the book “Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep? ” described the reality in this current society in his work. He defines the society who owns several luxurious goods and animals which are not necessarily needed. If this social phenomenon continues to happen in the future, society will be more rely on the fancy things and social acceptance to give them long-lasting happiness and self-satisfaction.